UN warns of funding shortages amid mass deportations of Afghan Refugees

UNHCR warns its funds are depleting as 2.2 million Afghans are expelled from Iran and Pakistan, urging urgent aid amid worsening poverty and dire humanitarian crisis.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has warned that its budget is running out as the mass expulsion of Afghan refugees from Iran and Pakistan continues.

In a statement on Sunday, August 17, the agency appealed for urgent international assistance to sustain its operations supporting Afghan returnees.

According to UNHCR figures, since the start of this year, more than 2.2 million Afghans have been deported from Iran and Pakistan.

The UN highlighted that poverty and unemployment in Afghanistan are rising sharply, with more than half of the population dependent on humanitarian aid for survival.

Other UN bodies have also voiced concern over the collective expulsions, stressing that many returnees face restrictions and threats under Taliban rule upon their return.

Humanitarian groups warn that without immediate funding, assistance programs for returning Afghans could collapse, leaving millions without access to food, shelter, and basic services.

The crisis underscores the urgent need for a coordinated international response, as both the expulsion of Afghan migrants and the worsening humanitarian conditions in Afghanistan continue to escalate.

UN warns of funding shortages amid mass deportations of Afghan Refugees
read more

Qane: Afghan Attacks Orchestrated Abroad with Foreign Involvement

The ministry’s spokesperson adds that the Ministry of Interior is working to also neutralize anti-security incidents planned outside Afghanistan’s borders.

The Ministry of Interior says that some of the anti-security incidents that occurred in Afghanistan over the past year were planned outside the country’s borders, and some citizens of neighboring countries were involved in them.

The ministry’s spokesperson adds that the Ministry of Interior is working, in cooperation with neighboring and regional countries, to also neutralize anti-security incidents planned outside Afghanistan’s borders.

Abdul Mateen Qaneh says: “Their key and remote control is with outsiders and not inside Afghanistan at all. You saw that there were attacks in some of the safest countries like Russia, Uzbekistan, and Turkey, and citizens of some neighboring countries were involved. We tried to eliminate them outside Afghanistan’s borders in cooperation with neighboring countries, and we are confident that no one else has control or presence inside Afghanistan. So there is no need for concern either inside or outside the country.”

Mohammad Zalmai Afghanyar, a political affairs expert, says: “Unfortunately, neighboring and regional countries, in pursuit of their deep strategic political interests, have managed plans targeting Afghanistan—even affecting members of the Afghan cabinet. I hope regional and extra-regional countries have realized that a politically stable Afghanistan can contribute to ensuring global security.”

Qaneh says the ministry has worked over the past year to effectively equip and provide the necessary facilities for security forces.

He provides statistics stating that the Ministry of Interior currently has 200,000 police personnel, of which around 2,000 are women.

The ministry’s spokesperson said: “The police force comprises around 200,000 individuals who are capable of fulfilling their assigned tasks. Organizational reviews will be done as needed.”

Previously, the Central Commission for Security and Clearance Affairs had also said that attacks carried out in Afghanistan over the past year were planned abroad and conducted by foreign nationals, especially citizens of Tajikistan and Pakistan.

Qane: Afghan Attacks Orchestrated Abroad with Foreign Involvement
read more

Pakistan Shifting Course by Hosting Afghan Opposition?

Khaama Press

Pakistan hosting Afghan opposition in Islamabad signals a potential policy shift, raising questions about its changing approach toward Afghanistan and the broader regional dynamics at play.

Pakistan is preparing to host a two-day meeting of Afghan opposition figures, including young leaders, political activists, party representatives, and women, in Islamabad on August 25–26.

According to reports, this is the first open gathering of Afghanistan’s diverse political groups since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.

Former U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad reacted strongly, calling Pakistan’s move “unwise and provocative,” warning it could deepen mistrust between Kabul and Islamabad rather than help regional stability.

The Taliban and their supporters have opposed the event, but sources claim Pakistan insists the group does not represent the whole of Afghanistan’s political spectrum.

Observers believe this could mark a fundamental shift in Pakistan’s approach to Afghanistan, reflecting a recognition of the country’s pluralism beyond Taliban rule.

Pakistan’s relations with the Taliban have soured in recent years due to rising insecurity on its soil and the presence of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) fighters in Afghanistan.

Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Taliban of sheltering TTP militants, an allegation the group denies. The dispute has fueled mistrust despite earlier years of close engagement.

Earlier this year, Pakistan’s intelligence officials even met former Afghan leaders and jihadi figures in Ankara, while its army chief Asim Munir warned the Taliban to stop directing TTP attacks into Pakistan.

Pakistan Shifting Course by Hosting Afghan Opposition?
read more

Khalilzad: Pakistan to Host Meeting of Taliban Opponents

Zalmay Khalilzad criticized Pakistan’s plan to host Afghan opposition leaders, calling it unwise and provocative, warning it could worsen mistrust and undermine fragile Afghanistan-Pakistan relations.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the former U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, said on Saturday that Pakistan will host a meeting of exiled Afghan opposition groups later this month.

Writing on social media platform X, Khalilzad noted that while Afghan citizens have the right to express their political views, Pakistan’s decision to host such a gathering was “very unwise and a deliberate provocation.”

He argued that the same principle would apply if the roles were reversed, explaining that if the Taliban hosted a meeting of Pakistani opposition groups seeking to overthrow a military-backed government, he would also condemn it.

“On August 25th and 26th, Pakistan is hosting a meeting of Afghan exiles opposed to the Taliban, including some who support the violent overthrow of the current authorities. Afghan citizens are entitled to their political views, but Pakistan’s seeming support of them by hosting their conference is hugely unwise and an intended provocation,” he stated.

According to Khalilzad, Afghanistan and Pakistan already suffer from a serious lack of trust and cooperation. He warned that this move by Islamabad is likely to further erode confidence and could backfire.

He described Pakistan’s action as “immature, irresponsible, and regrettable,” suggesting it risks inflaming tensions rather than promoting regional stability.

Khalilzad’s comments reflect long-standing suspicions between the two neighbors, where political disputes and security concerns have often overshadowed opportunities for cooperation. His statement underscores the fragile state of bilateral relations at a time when Afghanistan remains politically unstable under Taliban rule.

Khalilzad: Pakistan to Host Meeting of Taliban Opponents
read more

Mujahid: Work on Girls’ Education Continues Pending Religious Approval

In another part of his remarks, Mujahid said that the Islamic Emirate has decided to remove the term “acting” from government titles and structures.

Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate, stated that the matter of girls’ education is still under consideration, pending the issuance of a clear religious ruling.

In an interview with TOLOnews, in response to a question about the delay in reopening schools and universities for girls, he said: “The chastity of our sisters is important, as is their movement. From a religious standpoint, we must obtain a precise and legitimate ruling so we can convince religious scholars and move forward.”

In another part of his remarks, Mujahid said that the Islamic Emirate has decided to remove the term “acting” from government titles and structures.

He explained that this decision was made to ensure better management and improved effectiveness of the current administrative structure: “The Islamic Emirate decided that the term ‘acting’ is no longer needed in the system, and it was agreed that the government should serve the people with full responsibility.”

Mujahid also attributed the continued lack of international recognition of the Islamic Emirate to the wartime policies of foreign countries toward Afghanistan.

Regarding the formation of an inclusive government, he said that committed individuals can be included in the government structure.

“The Minister of Commerce is one of the country’s national businessmen. There are also officials at the deputy minister level who previously were not part of the Emirate. This does not mean we reject those without prior affiliation. Anyone who is committed, loyal, and experienced, and who possesses piety, religious values, and competence, will have a place,” he said.

As the Islamic Emirate enters its fifth year in power in Afghanistan, several issues including girls’ education remain unresolved, a matter that has drawn both domestic and international criticism over the past four years.

Mujahid: Work on Girls’ Education Continues Pending Religious Approval
read more

Global Criticism Marks Four Years of Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan

The United Nations and several European countries, in response to the fourth anniversary of the Islamic Emirate’s rule in Afghanistan, have emphasized the need to uphold women’s rights and Afghanistan’s international commitments.

The UN Secretary-General said that the current government in Afghanistan has deprived women and girls of their right to education and work.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, said: “ Women and girls, as we have been saying repeatedly, are especially vulnerable in Afghanistan.  As you are aware, the de facto authorities have imposed a series of increasingly restrictive policies which have excluded women and girls from education, the workforce and public life.”

Meanwhile, several European countries, including France, Germany, and Ireland, in separate statements, stressed that they will continue working with the European Union and the international community to keep focus on Afghanistan’s situation and to support women, girls, and humanitarian aid to the country.

In a statement, the French Foreign Ministry said: “The decisions taken by the Taliban over the past year once again show their blatant disregard for the commitments set out in UN Security Council Resolution 2593 of 2021. France continues to call on the Taliban to adhere to these commitments. The ban imposed in December 2024, preventing Afghan women from accessing medical educational institutions, adds to the numerous violations of women’s and girls’ rights committed by the Taliban since taking power, and it is unjustifiable and unacceptable.”

Germany’s Foreign Minister also stressed that Afghanistan’s return to the international community is not possible without respect for human rights.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said: “A return to the international community will be impossible unless the Taliban at last uphold international obligations, above all respect for the Afghan people’s human rights.”

Ireland’s Foreign Ministry, in its statement, said: “A secure future can only be achieved through full respect for civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights, as well as commitment to inclusive and representative governance. Ireland co-sponsored and voted in favour of a United Nations General Assembly Resolution in June, which committed to those same principles.”

Political analyst Idris Mohammadi Zazi said: “The demand of the Afghan people is also that engagement with the international community should be pursued in ways that do not contradict Islam, so that progress can be made toward recognition.”

The Islamic Emirate enters its fifth year of rule in Afghanistan while the issues of girls’ education and women’s employment remain unresolved. These matters have faced persistent domestic and international criticism over the past four years.

Global Criticism Marks Four Years of Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan
read more

Over 4 years since the Taliban took Kabul, millions of Afghans have been sent back to a country in crisis

By Trisha Mukherjee

Over the course of the past four years since the Taliban took control of Kabul, plunging Afghanistan into a humanitarian crisis and stripping away women’s rights, millions of Afghans who initially fled have now been expelled from Iran and Pakistan, according to the United Nations.

Over 1.5 million Afghans have returned to Afghanistan so far this year, according to the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM). 700,000 Afghan migrants have returned to Afghanistan from Iran this year as of June 2025, according to the UN.

Some have never set foot in Afghanistan, while others haven’t been in the country since fleeing it decades ago, said Arafat Jamal, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representative in Afghanistan.

Russia became the first country to recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan’s official government, but other countries have not done so.

Many of the returnees arrived at the Afghan border in buses “bewildered, disoriented, and tired and hungry,” according to Jamal.

Earlier this year, Iran ordered all of the estimated 2 million undocumented Afghans — out of the estimated 6 million total Afghans in Iran — to leave the country.

Since the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June, UN agencies have seen a large increase in the number of Afghans crossing the border from Iran back into Afghanistan, Jamal said.

This increase of Afghans leaving Iran came as the government of Iran intensified their campaign against Afghans, accusing many of them of espionage, according to the Center for Human Rights in Iran.

Some experts warn that these actions constitute a violation of the principle of non-refoulement – meaning not forcing refugees or asylum seekers to return to a country where they may be subject to persecution – in possible violation of international law.

In previous years, UNHCR could provide $2,000 in cash assistance to returnee Afghan families, enabling them to build autonomy and get back on their feet once they returned to their home country. In the past few months, cuts in foreign aid funding have decreased that budget to just $156 per family, “simply enabling a person to survive for a week or two on the basic necessities,” Jamal said.

Once inside Afghanistan, returnees’ face difficult conditions back at home. In addition to the Taliban restricting women’s rights by banning their movements outside of the home without a male guardian and by restricting their access to education past age 12, Afghanistan is also facing climate change and environmental challenges — around a third of Afghans don’t have access to basic drinking water, according to Unicef.

Zahra, a journalist living in Afghanistan who asked ABC News to use only her first name due to fear of persecution by the Taliban, said that Afghans have done their best to support returnees, despite having very few resources themselves.

“Even if I have one extra pillow, I should give it to others,” she told ABC News. “It’s enough if we eat lunch and skip dinner to give this meal to another.”

In the last several months, international humanitarian aid funding has been slashed by previously committed allies.

In April 2025, the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction announced that it was cutting nearly all assistance programs to Afghanistan. Since the Taliban takeover in 2021, the U.S. had been Afghanistan’s largest donor, according to SIGAR. Soon after the U.S.’s April announcement, the U.K. — another major donor to humanitarian initiatives in the country — reduced its aid to Afghanistan by 19%.

More than 400 health facilities, 400 acute malnutrition centers, and 300 clinics for survivors of gender based violence have shut down as a result, according to the UN.

Zahra said she has witnessed the devastating consequences of these facilities’ closures. She said there was a pregnant woman who needed medical help but couldn’t go to her local clinic, which had shuttered due to aid cuts. The expecting mother could not immediately secure a male chaperone to travel to the nearest open clinic, as mandated by the Taliban, Zahra said. As a result, according to Zahra, both the woman and her baby lost their lives.

Now, as millions of additional Afghans return to a country already facing multiple humanitarian crises, many international NGOs are operating with inadequate funding to address the many issues in the country.

UNHCR, for example, said it has less than a quarter of the funding it needs to address the emergency situation in Afghanistan and neighboring countries. Additionally, the International Rescue Committee has had to suspend some of their education services in Afghanistan.

These international bodies are calling for an increase in funding and support. “More humanitarian aid is urgently needed to protect and assist Afghans forced to flee,” the UNHCR wrote on its website.

“What’s happening in Afghanistan are crimes against humanity – crimes against the whole of humanity – which should shock our conscience and provoke action by all,” said Richard Bennett, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan. “It is not time to give up.”

Over 4 years since the Taliban took Kabul, millions of Afghans have been sent back to a country in crisis
read more

‘They do not teach us what we need’: Inside the expansion of religious schools for girls across Afghanistan

Story by Isobel Yeung and Mick Krever

Girls study at a religious school, or madrasa, where the curriculum is largely set by the Taliban government and devoted to Islamic studies.

EDITOR’S NOTE:  This story is part of As Equals, CNN’s ongoing series on gender inequality. For information about how the series is funded and more, check out our FAQs.

Kabul, Afghanistan — 

“I want” – the girl stops herself – “I wanted to be a doctor in the future. But when the Taliban came to Afghanistan, all the doors of schools were closed.”

Inside the Taliban-approved Naji-e-Bashra madrasa – a girls-only religious school on the outskirts of Kabul – a teenage girl wearing a full face covering speaks nervously. Her classmate grabs her arm beneath the table, aware that any criticism of the ruling Taliban government is ill-advised.

Imperfect though these religious institutions are, they are the only option for most Afghan girls over the age of 12 who want any education. Afghanistan remains the only country in the world that prohibits girls and women from getting general education at secondary and higher levels.

In July this year, the International Criminal Court sought arrest warrants for two of the top Taliban leaders, citing the persecution of women and girls as evidence of crimes against humanity. The Taliban denounced the court as showing “enmity and hatred for the pure religion of Islam.”

The Taliban had originally stated that the suspension of female education would be temporary, and some leaders said that they wanted mainstream schools to reopen once security issues were resolved. But four years on, the fundamentalist wing of the Taliban seems to be winning. Non-religious schools, universities and even healthcare training centers remain closed off to half the population. According to a report published in March by UNESCO, a United Nations agency, nearly 1.5 million girls have been prohibited from attending secondary school since 2021.

Meanwhile, the number of madrasas educating girls and boys across Afghanistan has grown sharply. According to data from the Ministry of Education, 22,972 state-funded madrasas have been established over the past three years.

At the Naji-e-Bashra madrasa, where CNN gained rare access to film in recent weeks, enrolment has skyrocketed since the Taliban began depriving girls of a “mainstream” education.

Because this is a private facility, funded by parents of students who generally live a more privileged life, staff are given slightly more leeway to also teach languages and science alongside Islamic studies. In public madrasas, which are funded by the Taliban government, the curriculum is almost entirely religious in content.

In 2022, the Taliban announced their plans for the school curriculum, setting out many changes that according to a report by the Afghanistan Human Rights Center, a human rights monitoring group, “not only fail to meet the human development goals of international human rights instruments, but also teach students content that promotes violence, opposes the culture of tolerance, peace, reconciliation, and human rights values.”

The report published last December alleges that the Taliban has “tailored educational goals to align with its extremist and violent ideology.” It says that they have amended history, geography and religious textbooks and prohibited the teaching of concepts such as democracy, women’s rights and human rights.

“The students are very happy with our environment, our curriculum, and us,” says the principal of the Naji-e-Bashra madrasa, Shafiullah Dilawar, a self-declared long-time supporter of the Taliban. “The curriculum that is set in the madrasa is set in a way that it is very beneficial for the role of mothers in society, so they can raise good children.”

He denied any suggestion that such institutions were being used to further the Taliban’s ideological goals.

The Taliban rejected multiple requests for an interview.

Secret schools

But many girls and women in Afghanistan consider madrasas no substitute for the education they were increasingly able to access over the two decades preceding the chaotic US withdrawal in 2021.

Nargis is the model student. She’s conscientious, organized, hardworking and studied diligently throughout her life.

At the time that US troops were withdrawing from her city, Nargis was studying economics at a private university. She’d go to classes in the morning, work a part-time job in the afternoon, then teach herself English in the evening. She’d never tire of learning.

“If four years ago you asked me what I wanted to do with my life, I had lots of goals, dreams, and hopes,” she said wistfully. “At that time, I wanted to be a very big businesswoman. I wanted to import from other countries. I wanted to have a big school for girls. I wanted to go to Oxford University. Maybe I’d have my own coffee shop.”

But what broke her heart was seeing the faces of her younger sisters, at the time 11 and 12 years old, who came home one day and told her their school had been closed.

Nargis began collecting all her past textbooks and started teaching the girls everything she’d learned. Other relatives and neighbors began asking for help too – and she found it difficult to say no.

And so, every morning at 6 a.m. sharp, before the Taliban security guards have arisen, around 45 female students from as young as age 12 sneak across the city to Nargis’s family home. Nargis has no support or funding – and often the girls huddle around one textbook, sharing notepads and pens.

Together, they learn mathematics, science, computing and English. Nargis racks her brain for all the knowledge she’s ever accumulated and imparts it to her students.

When the time comes for them to return home, she worries endlessly.

Two months ago, members of the Taliban came to raid the home she was teaching from. She spent a night in jail and was reprimanded for her work. Her father and other male family members begged her to stop, telling her it was not worth it. But terrified though Nargis is, she says she refuses to abandon her students. She switched locations and carried on.

Up until earlier this year, USAID (the United States’ Agency for International Development) had been funding secret schools across the country – known as “community-based education” – as well as study abroad programs and online scholarships. With the cancellation of $1.7 billion worth of aid contracts (of which $500 million was yet to be disbursed) under the Trump administration, several of those educational programs are now winding down.

Nargis herself had been a beneficiary of one such program, studying online for a Bachelor of Business Administration at a US-funded program. Last month, she says, that program was cancelled. It was the nail in the coffin for Nargis’s ambitions. Not just the cancellation of her studies, but “the cancellation of my hopes and dreams.”

“My mum was never educated. She always told us how it was under the previous Taliban government, and so we studied hard… But what is the difference between me and my mum now?” she asked. “I have an education, but we are both at home.

“For what are we trying so hard? For what job and what future?”

‘They do not teach us what we need’: Inside the expansion of religious schools for girls across Afghanistan
read more

Travel influencers boost tourism to Taliban-run Afghanistan

By Astha Rajvanshi

NBC News

August 5, 2025

The influencers gain attention by gushing over visits to the Central Asian nation, although one critic notes that their trips legitimize its “gender apartheid.”

The influencers gain attention by gushing over visits to the Central Asian nation, although one critic notes that their trips legitimize its “gender apartheid.”
Margaritta, a 33-year-old travel influencer from Germany, embarked on a three-month solo trip through Afghanistan in May 2024. Despite a “media echo that Afghanistan was not safe,” she said, “I was not scared.”

She “felt fantastic,” Margaritta, who asked that only her first name be used for security reasons, told NBC News. “I was treated like a queen.”

The trip was “one of those amazing experiences that also pushed me,” she added in a post on her TikTok channel, @margarittasworld, which has over 18,000 subscribers.

Margaritta is among a handful of travel influencers who have gone to Afghanistan since the Taliban took power following a chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led forces in 2021.

They are seen exploring the country’s landlocked, mountainous terrain and its tribal culture in videos posted online, contesting perceptions that the country is unsafe and hostile to women. While thrilling for the influencers and their followers, critics accuse these carefully edited travelogues of whitewashing the harsh realities of life in Afghanistan, particularly for women, and rehabilitating the country’s autocratic rulers.

Internationally renowned Afghan activist and scholar Orzala Nemat, currently a visiting fellow at the London-based think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said that the surge of foreign influencers in Afghanistan was deeply concerning.

“What we’re seeing instead is a curated, sanitized version of the country that conveniently erases the brutal realities faced by Afghan women under Taliban rule,” Orzala told NBC News.

The Taliban has effectively barred Afghan women from many aspects of public life, including access to education and jobs. In July, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for two of the Taliban’s top leaders, accusing them of persecuting women and girls in Afghanistan, which the group dismissed.

Influencers continue to go to Afghanistan despite clear warnings from the U.S. State Department that Americans should not travel to the country “for any reason” and that “there is a risk of wrongful detention of U.S. nationals.”

The European Union and Britain have issued similar travel advisories, while none of these countries have operational embassies in Afghanistan, limiting the provision of consular assistance to citizens.

Margaritta traveled solo through Afghanistan for three months.

Margaritta, while acknowledging that the Taliban had imposed strict laws on women, said she viewed them instead as a sign that “women have value, and they are valued as precious.”

Her comments were echoed by 31-year-old Zoe Stephens, a British travel vlogger and tour guide from Liverpool, England, who has visited Afghanistan three times.

“All we see of the women in Afghanistan is shapes behind burqas,” she told NBC News. “But when I got there, I realized that … there’s a lot more nuance to it.”

Having spent time with some Afghan women behind closed doors, she added that much of this was not on video or photographed because “it’s very private.”

Stephens regularly shares her experiences in Afghanistan and North Korea, the other destination covered by her travel company Koryo Tours, with over 70,000 followers on her Instagram accounts, @zoediscovers and @zoediscoversnk.

Like Margaritta, Stephens said that during her time there, she saw that “the strength of the Afghan women is that they don’t have to just show it.”

In one of her posts, Stephens appears dressed in a headscarf and an abaya, a traditional robe, as she holds a selfie stick on a tour bus as it zooms through rugged landscape. The video cuts to show her laughing with local Afghan women as she explores lakes, mosques and mountain trails.

Her caption reads: “It might surprise you to hear that travelling Afghanistan as a woman is actually often safer than travelling as a man. Why? The things to watch out for in Afghanistan is not the government and what it controls; rather, what it can’t control.”

Still, Stephens then lists a few safety tips for women that include dressing appropriately, exuding modesty, avoiding crowded spaces and not making one’s location public in real time.

Margaritta says she was “treated like a queen” in Afghanistan.

Orzala, of RUSI, said that while influencers with Western passports “roam freely, pose for photos and gain online fame,” those privileges are denied to Afghan women, who are barred from schools, jobs or even walking freely in public without being accompanied by male guardians.

There are also moral and ethical dilemmas, she added, because profits from tourism risk indirectly legitimizing and financially sustaining a regime that has institutionalized “gender apartheid.”

As for videos from influencers that show Afghan women smiling in the background, Orzala said, “This should never be confused with contentment or consent to the current reality.”

“This is not cultural exchange; it’s neocolonial tourism dressed up as adventure,” she added.

Visitors to Afghanistan are still in the low thousands as the war-torn country tries to rebuild its image under strict Taliban-run Islamic laws and customs. Nearly 9,000 foreigners visited in 2024, while nearly 3,000 visited in the first three months of this year, according to a report from The Associated Press.

Along with travel influencers, some tourism companies are creating jaw-dropping videos that have since been reshared by Taliban accounts on social media in a bid to attract more visitors.

One outlandish 50-second video made by vlogger Yosaf Aryubi begins with an eerie scene of three people with bags over their heads, presumed to be held hostage by the men standing behind them, who are dressed like the Taliban with rifles slung over their shoulders.

“We have one message for America,” one of the armed men says, before pulling the bag off one of the hostages, only to reveal a grinning tourist who gives a thumbs-up and says, “Welcome to Afghanistan!”

The video then cuts to male tourists diving into scenic lakes and walking through waterfalls and even holding M4 rifles that are revealed to be replicas.

Not every influencer sees Afghanistan in that way. In another video, YouTuber Nolan Saumure, whose channel Seal on Tour has 650,000 subscribers, acknowledges that he only interacted with men during his trip there.

In a 35-minute video titled “Afghanistan Has Too Much Testosterone,” Saumure spins the camera around to show a large crowd of Afghan men swarming him.

“It’s a complete sausage fest in here,” he says.

Astha Rajvanshi is a reporter for NBC News Digital, based in London. Previously, she worked as a staff writer covering international news for TIME.

Caroline Radnofsky and Jay Ganglani contributed.

Travel influencers boost tourism to Taliban-run Afghanistan
read more

Afghanistan’s Healthcare System Near Collapse Amid Aid Cuts and Facility Closures

Afghanistan’s healthcare system nears collapse as aid cuts force closure of 425 facilities, leaving 23 million people in urgent need of food, clean water, and medical care.

Afghanistan’s healthcare system is on the verge of collapse following the Taliban’s return to power, as international aid, once the backbone of medical services, has been almost entirely cut off.

The U.S.-based New Lines newspaper reported on Thursday, August 14, that more than 23 million people, nearly half of the population, now need assistance to access food, clean water, or basic healthcare.

This crisis has deepened significantly since the withdrawal of most foreign aid and the exit of international relief agencies, leaving millions without reliable access to medical treatment.

According to the World Health Organization, over 425 health facilities have shut down, forcing many patients to travel for hours to reach the nearest functioning hospital or clinic.

Despite the end of large-scale fighting, hospitals remain in a state of emergency. Doctors say they now treat injuries from domestic violence, stabbings, and road accidents, along with medical complications caused by the lack of primary healthcare.

Health experts warn that without a rapid restoration of international funding and supplies, the country faces a complete breakdown of its health system, leading to a sharp rise in preventable deaths.

Aid organizations are urging the global community to act immediately, stressing that Afghanistan’s health crisis is now as severe as it was during the height of the war.

Afghanistan’s Healthcare System Near Collapse Amid Aid Cuts and Facility Closures
read more